Trevor Williams: Analysis of The Third Man

"A person doesn't change just because you find out more."- Anna Schmidt



In 1999, The Third Man (1949) topped the British Film Institute's list of the one hundred best British films of all time (The BFI 100). This was a great achievement as it was rated higher than films such as Brief Encounter, Lawrence Of Arabia, The 39 Steps, and Great Expectations, which finished out the top five films. The Third Man is a very exciting film noir revolving -for the most part- around a murder mystery in post-World War II Vienna and is still influential today. The story follows American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) as he arrives in Austria at the bequest of his friend Harry Lime. Upon arrival in Vienna, Martins expects to find his friend Harry Lime waiting at the train station, but soon finds Lime recently died in an auto accident outside of his apartment. At the funeral, Martins meets Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) who claims Harry Lime was a criminal and attempts to send Martins home the next day. After talking to the people who witnessed the accident and the acquaintances of Harry Lime, Holly Martins soon finds inconsistencies in the stories and thinks that Lime's death was not an accident.

Graham Greene's script for the The Third Man reflected his own experience and that of those around him serving as an officer in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The information Greene received heavily contributed to the story, most notably with the story of the watered down penicillin being racketeered in postwar Europe (The Vienna Project).

Aside from experience, the script also developed some very well drawn characters and the interaction between them. The supposed romance that is expected between Holly Martins and Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), Harry Lime's Czech girlfriend, is portrayed as a one sided affair as Holly tries to attain Anna, but she cannot love him because she remains loyal to Harry, no matter all of the bad things he did. The relationship is integral to the story, but at thesame time Anna and Holly never have the romance that is expected. The interaction between characters is very existential as it gives us a pessimistic outlook as characters look out for themselves throughout the film.

While the film's story tries to be realistic, the film has a very expressionistic visual style to contrast that can be seen as an influence on filmmakers ranging from Martin Scorsese to Woody Allen to Peter Jackson with its tilted camera angles, harsh lighting, and the use of wide-angled lenses. The chase scene in Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog is almost identically shot to the end chase through Vienna in The Third Man. This distorted cinematography seemed to give it a surreal look that seemed appropriate in a cynical, postwar Vienna. The visuals are very strong as it showed the destruction caused by the Allied bombing of the city in March 1945 (The Vienna Project).

It is one of the most strikingly visual films ever to be produced. The film also presented political undertones hinting at the tension developing in a city zoned between the Allies: France, Great Britain,the U.S., and the U.S.S.R. The city was divided into zones and in the central part of the city it was patrolled by groups of all four armies. The corruption in a divided city was evident early in the film as director Carol Reed's opening narration described the blossoming black market in Vienna where money was useless and more often cigarettes were used as currency (The Vienna Project).

The Third Man is a classic from director Carol Reed and screenwriter Graham Greene as they present the bitter reality that was evolving into the Cold War. Their harsh representation is uniform with the worrysome outlook of the Europeans following WorldWar II. At the same time, the film expresses the optimism of the Americans, though it presented that outlook as much fantasy as the pulp westerns Holly Martins wrote. The film is a seemingly influential film and rightfully so, as it is a well made, well paced, and very entertaining movie, even if most people think Orson Welles made it.

Works Cited:

The Third Man. Dir. Carol Reed. Perf. Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli,Orson Welles, Trevor Howard. British Lion Film Corporation, 1949.

The BFI 100. British Film Institute. 6 September 2006

The Vienna Project. British Film Institue. 5 September 2006